Tag: YouTube

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Truly Free Film

There Is SOME Online Rental Business

Okay, okay.  I stand corrected, but it was a good headline, wasn’t it?  And I am not sure if $385Million per year in the US of online renting and downloading is cause to rejoice.

Besides, if you noticed, my post was really a jumping off point to try to address how we want to watch, or at least like to watch.  We do have to offer our work for single transactions, but we have to recognize that is not how most people are choosing to watch.  And yes, as many noted, we should not judge the lack of traction on YouTube for online rentals as representative of much.  As Scilla Andreen pointed out, you need to honor your work with appropriate placement.  YouTube has done so well building a community of generators and viewers accustomed to watching for free, it may be antithetical to the experience to pay anything ever there.

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Truly Free Film

There Is No Online Rental Business

As I write this The Weinstein Company’s top rental on YouTube is Michael Moore’s SICKO, with a whopping 151 views.  In reading PaidContent’s article on the TWC/YTube alliance, you can’t help wonder if there IS any business to be had in online rentals.  Is the online one-off transactional content-rental business completely non-existent?  And if so why?

I think we are starting to move away from the impulse buy mentality.

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Truly Free Film

What Is The #1 Most Important Thing You Can Do For Your Film Aside From…

Today’s guest post is from IndieFlix founder and CEO Scilla Andreen.

What is the #1 most important thing you can do for your film aside from telling a good story?

It’s not what you think and it’s often taken for granted. I believe the answer is to honor your film and the people who support it by having meaningful engagement in everything that you do.

Yes, it sounds broad and vague and it falls into the category of listen to your gut, but when applied to each and every action you take it becomes a highly, customized, sharpshooting tool that prioritizes your time and money.  It will act as your compass on your filmmaking journey.

I am a filmmaker turned distributor out of pure necessity. I had to start IndieFlix because

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Truly Free Film

Hunter Weeks On Three Lessons from Three Films

Guest post by filmmaker Hunter Weeks.

I’ve now produced, directed and distributed three documentary films. It’s been exhausting, time-consuming, super-challenging, but all the while, the most enriching collection of experiences I could ever imagine. I don’t know how Ted’s done what he’s done, but I’m pleased to have met him a year ago at Power to Pixel and to now be a guest on his blog.

Yesterday, I released my 3rd film on YouTube free for approximately two days (2711 minutes to be exact). 2711 minutes because the focus of this documentary is about the world’s longest mountain bike race – the Tour Divide – which crossed through 2711 miles of the rugged and beautiful Rocky Mountains when I filmed it. I’ll tell you the path that led to this strategy down below.

With each of my three films, I’ve learned a ton about how to market and distribute independent films (and by that term, I mean truly independent or as I like to say baby indies). I’ve had to learn these things because I’m not part of the elite establishment in film (and with the competition that exists to get there, I’ve found it easier to go solo and build my own audience, thereby increasing my chances of survival and growth within this industry). Looking back on the marketing of each film, I’ve gone away with one key learning from each effort.

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Uncategorized

YouTube Removing The Tyranny Of Choice

I’ve always pictured utopia as the time when choice, not impulse or passivity, drives our participation and consumption.  But as the NY Times reports, that does not fit with YouTube’s business mandate to keep viewers on their site.

YouTube LeanBack will debut this fall: “There’s no browsing, no searching, no clicking. It behaves like you would expect television to.”

Thanks to Phillip Lefesi for bringing this to my attention!


Categories
Bowl Of Noses

Beautiful Ball Collects The City

Wow.  I know nothing about video games, but this video sure makes me want to change that.  The ball just keeps rolling on, gathering up everything in it’s path of destruction.  It’s kinda glorious.  And it kinda reminds of me the giant ball in “Raiders Of The Lost Brick“.  Maybe “to destroy IS to create”.

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Bowl Of Noses

A Cardboard Hope: (Sweded) Star Wars

Michel Gondry has changed culture many times over.  His Lego video may be the greatest video ever.  And his Rubik’s Cube series are among the YouTube Hall of Fame.  I look forward to the day when “Sweded” films take over from the corporate.  Homemade always tastes better.  This Star Wars trumps any thing Lucas did after the first three (and that is the TRUE first three, not the alternately titled first three).  And the soundtrack ranks with John Williams’ best work.